Posted on 06/17/2026 7:58:17 AM PDT by Miami Rebel
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade ripped the Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Iran during a Wednesday morning interview with the Hudson Institute’s Rebeccah Heinrichs.
“Rebeccah, can we just start on the Israeli portion of it? Israel has to, I guess, stop fighting back against Hezbollah, who’s lobbing missiles at the northern part of their country,” began Kilmeade. “This makes absolutely no sense.”
“It makes no sense. And we also know, Brian, that there have been diplomatic attempts over and over and over again since the early 2000s to try to get Hezbollah to disarm. They will not disarm, it has never worked through negotiations and diplomacy. At this point, if this is tied to this deal, the United States would essentially be restraining Israel, our greatest ally in the region and the reason that we had such success in [Operation] Epic Fury,” replied Heinrichs.
“Yeah, you can’t blame [Benjamin] Netanyahu for this. They’re defending themselves. They just happen to be very good at defending themselves. It’s not their fault that they’re this strong and this devastating, and Syria is not equipped to take out Hezbollah, even though they’d love to. They have no missile defense, Hezbollah has got rockets,” agreed Kilmeade, shooting down Trump’s suggestion that Israel allow Syria to take out Hezbollah.
“Let’s talk about the deal. What concerns you most about what we now know about this deal as we wait two days for the formal reading of the deal?” he followed up.
“Well, first of all, Brian, I just want to say, I mean, Epic Fury was so successful and Economic Fury is so successful, and President Trump was right to initiate it. And we really have the Iranians in a vice, which is why I’m concerned that we would permit the Iranians access to their oil as we relieve this blockade. They would essentially have billions of dollars back into the IRGC coffers. I know the vice president continues to say this will be conditions-based, but as far I can tell this, isn’t even gonna be put in escrow accounts to trap it to make sure that the IRGC complies. We have no reason to believe that they will, so they will be flooded with cash almost immediately,” answered Heinrichs. “My second big concern is that the deal does recognize Iranian governance with other Gulf States over the Strait of Hormuz. Now, the Iranians will say they just want to collect environmental tolls. They’re not going to call it tolls, they’ll call it fees. That’s tolls! Brian, that’s worse than before Epic Fury. The United States cannot permit Iran to have coercive control over the Strait of Hormuz. And so to me, those are the two big ones tied with, I think., the fact that once you relieve sanctions, you really lose your leverage to enforce what we want on removing and dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.”
“And what we’re gonna do is they have frozen funds. So it’ll be 300 billion. It looks like they get it up front. It looks they’re gonna be selling oil right up front, and it looks like after 60 days they charge tolls with Oman. There’s no way, because that’s gonna set a precedent for international waters and waterways around the world. So that every big and small power does not want this to be a new trend,” mused Kilmeade. “That’ll blow everybody’s budget, correct?”
The pair went on to express concern over the leverage the agreement might lend the Chinese as well as the United States’ role in helping Iran secure the $300 billion in investments. Kilmeade openly wondered “if the people that negotiated this have informed the president about what’s in the page-and-a-half he’s going to read publicly on Friday.”
“I would just say: we were in a much better place before we saw the details of this MOU. And unless President Trump can change this at the last minute and get good deals here, I would say that this Memorandum of Understanding is worse than not having it,” concluded Heinrichs.
“Right, next 24 hours he could go in and do that. I hope he does,” concurred Kilmeade.
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Maybe by November everyone will forget a war that’s cost a dozen or so lives and tens of billions of dollars*.
* Direct military costs are now about $29 billion. That doesn’t include economic costs.
Kilmeade is an ‘Operation Mockingbird’ tool,
The President should have shot up the place, burned the bunkers and then immediately rode his horse right out of town in a matter of days. Let the dead bury the dead. I stated the same on this forum from the first day of the conflict. We were never going boots on the ground.
However, as he did not and kept going, a smart lawyer might’ve advised him to then declare total victory, war is over, officially signed and on the record by both parties for the whole wide Democrat world to witness.
Thus allowing for another bombing campaign after having reset the War Powers clock. Where the President can now commit armed forces to another military action without congressional approval for a maximum of 60 days, extended for an additional 30 days. Rinse and repeat with Iran.
Don’t play the Obama fools game.
If the Republicans lose the House or the Senate, the Trump revolution is over along with any hope of saving the Republic. If we prolonged the embargo, high gas prices and associated inflation may doom us with too many short-sighted voters and an enemy press.
The only way to take out the Iranian regime is a ground invasion and loss of perhaps many American lives, political suicide, and again, our chance to save the Republic.
If we have to separate ourselves from Isreal, at least in the short term, to save America, so be it. The irony is, if Democrats regain power, Israel will be completely abandoned. So they need to understand their best chance is with Republicans doing what they must do over the next five months to retain power.
So Brian, Trump’s actions make perfect sense to me, and I agree with them.
On the contrary Mr. Kilmeade, it makes all the sense in the world.
We basically had three options:
1) Prolong the blockade along the Strait. Economically unpalatable not just to us, but to our own allies. (I can only imagine just how many people have been shouting at the White House since 2/28.)
2) Escalate to a full-blown invasion of Iran, as our prior aerial bombardments had not been sufficient to keep Iran from paralyzing the Strait of Hormuz. (Given Iran's geography, this also came with its own risks, and attempting to invade Iran would likely result in a full-blown revolt amongst the Republicans and MAGA by the anti-war/isolationist faction...and there's no guarantee that the economic impact would be resolved any more quickly than in Option 1.)
3) Make a deal, even if the terms aren't favorable. (Because, like it or not, we lost militarily, because we were unable to actually impose our will on Iran, nor were we able to obtain any of our strategic objectives.)
Diplomatically salvaging a bad situation is pretty much the best card left for Trump, and he's playing it as hard as he can.
The mainstream freakout over the "bad deal" misses the crucial point: it was a bad war, which the US and Israel decisively lost.
The "bad deal" is a byproduct of that loss.
You have to reckon with the fact it was a bad war and a lost war, or your analysis is garbage.
There are no “good” solutions available. Military total victory is not possible w/o large numbers of troops on the ground/significant casualties or the use of nuclear weapons. Neither of these “options” is realistic or acceptable to the average U.S. citizen.
We need to move on concentrating on the mid-terms; Trump has 2 years left and if those are spent dueling w/a democrat Congress the repercussions on the Republic will be catastrophic.
(Full disclosure: I am a 78-year-old “boomer” and old enough to remember the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut; the 3-hour attack on the USS Liberty and President Carter's failed mission to rescue the US Embassy hostages in Tehran.) Getting our forces involved in the Middle East is ALWAYS a huge risk and often a very bad idea.)
So those of us who said from the start that this was a stupid, unnecessary, and politically disastrous military campaign were right after all.
the way Iran was susposed to win the war was to get trump defeated in the midterms. oil prices now are going down. People will travel with low gas prices for summer vacation. Gas prices will be low come election time. Republicans have a better chance of winning. winning in november would give trump leaway to take another bite out of iran if and when they go back to what they have been doing for the last 40 years.
So in your reckoning, President Trump miscalculated in launching this war before the midterms?
I think Trump felt pressured by the midterms. I think he also concluded that the IRGC was not going away, no matter how long it went on. Unfortunately the IRGC feels no pressure to agree to anything, while Trump was under time pressure.
That was he iranian plan: delay and drag out “negotiations” as long as they could, counting on domestic political pressure to get DJT to cave. Each empty Trump threat and the his begging for a “deal” simply encouraged them. They played Trump’s ego like a fiddle.
Their plan worked like a charm.
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so think this through. deal is signed. gas prices go down. republicans win in november. Iranians go back to their old habits/tricks/games/state sponsored terrorism....what does trump do? he takes another bite out of them.
Kilmeade has always struck me as a liberal playing the part of a conservative.
So in your reckoning, President Trump miscalculated in launching this war before the midterms?
//////////
No.
It won’t. The other Arab states will spend it IF it’s in the final deal.
One word: Gullibility
Brian is making more sense than Donald at this point.
Well if there is anything this whole ordeal did is solidify my permanent break from Fox News.
“You have to reckon with the fact it was a bad war and a lost war, or your analysis is garbage.”
The Iranian armed forces were totally destroyed. The top tier level of leaders were all killed. Their economy is in shambles. The country is at the mercy of the UNOPPOSED United States military.
Can you cite from history a similar circumstance where the recipients of such destruction and circumstances were deemed the victors?
The only cards the Iranians have to play is their knowledge that Trump does not want to destroy the economic infrastructure of Iran — their bridges, power plants, etc., and permanently harm the Iranian people, and they watch the news and know the democrats are on their side.
You are a complete idiot to believe the Iranian press and their lapdogs the democrats with their media. You had to rely on repeating your main point twice in an effort to turn an accusation into a fact.
Why war when you have them utterly blockaded and they are starving for money because they cannot ship oil in bulk and are choking on their own supply as a consequence? We can sit here forever. We don’t need the oil. Sure China does and our backstabbing so called NATO so called allies in Europe do.
That is why the globalists need a war - because Trump showed the alternate path - maritime supremacy. It’s effective and you don’t need boots on the ground.
Well, it seems like a huge cost for war that fell a little bit short of unconditional surrender.
Brian Kilmeade is a jerk. He’s the “sports” guy. Not a real journalist. He doesn’t know what he is talking about.
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